8 Facts That Make Game of Thrones One of The Biggest TV Shows Ever

It’s 28th of June, 2016 today and finally, Game of Thrones has had another season wrapped up. Which is why, now you are staring at your laptop having no idea what to do next in life. Well, I have your back! Because today I have something that will show you just how big and popular Game of Thrones really is. (Which means you are not the only one counting days to Season 7.)

Welcome to How Big Are They and here are 8 facts that make Game of Thrones one of the biggest and most popular TV show ever!

A single season costs more than a successful Mars mission:Each episode of the first season of Game of Thrones cost upwards of $5 million. In fact, the entire first season cost somewhere between $50 and $60 million. Fast forward to this year, the sixth season has a total cost of most than $100 million. To put it in perspective, a single episode of Game of Thrones costs thrice the amount of an episode of The Big Bang Theory. Even better, India’s entire Mars mission cost a quarter less than the budget of the latest season of GoT ($73 million).

Game of Thrones influences world economies:When was the last time you heard that a TV Series was a major contributor to a country’s economy? Never, right? Well, that’s exactly what GoT did for Northern Ireland as it directly brought more than $100 million to the country’s economy.

It has been the most pirated TV Show for four years running:From 2012 to 2015, GoT has been the most pirated TV Show on the whole of Internet, according to TorrentFreak. It is so popular that in 2015, it was pirated almost twice more than the runner-up, The Walking Dead. According to BitTorrent, 5.9 million downloads were recorded of the 2013 season finale. In the same year, Breaking Bad had only 4.2 million downloads while The Walking Dead was way behind at 3.6 million.

Game of Thrones holds the record for most Emmys in a single year:Game of Thrones broke the Emmy Awards in 2015 when it won an unprecedented 12 awards in one night. It broke the previous record of 9 wins in a single year held by The West Wing.

Game of Thrones is the highest rated TV Series on IMDB of all time:While shows like Band of Brothers and Planet Earth share the same rating as GoT (9.5/10), it is important to note that both of them are Mini TV Series. Despite the same ranking, Game of Thrones (998,050 votes)has almost five times the number of votes compared to Band of Brothers (223,817) and 10 times compared to Planet Earth (99,251). Even Breaking Bad lags behind at second with (862,085) votes. How about Friends? #41 on the list!

It had an entire channel devoted to itself:An Israel TV provider, Yes, launched a temporary channel devoted entirely to GoT three weeks before the Season 6 premiere. Looks like GoT is particularly popular in Israel, isn’t it?

Valar Morghulis:Game of Thrones is known for its bloodshed and deaths. Therefore it should be no surprise that by the end of its 50th episode, there had been exactly 704 on screen deaths. That’s more than 14 deaths in every single episode. And we don’t even have the numbers for the latest season yet. Valar Morghulis indeed!

Game of Thrones has its own porn parodies too:What could be more popular than the gruesome action of Game of Thrones? That’s right: the sex! But if you are one of those who are always in the quest of more, rejoice! You have three GoT porn parodies to choose from (no I won’t leave a link to them):
a. Sex of Thrones,b. Game of Bones, and,c. This Ain’t Game of Thrones XXX.

Feeling sad that this list is also over, just like the latest season? In that case, smile, ñuha raqiros!This is what Hodor looks with and without his costume:

What was your favorite moment from this season of Game of Thrones? Let me know in the comments below. Also, which other TV Show are you looking forward to now? I, for one, cannot wait for the next season of Suits. If you enjoyed this list, why not show off your GoT knowledge in front of your other crazy friends? Let me know how it goes!

As usual, thank you for reading and I will catch you in the next one!

Fun Fact: I have never watched even a single episode of Game of Thrones. Yeah, we exist. 😛

20 Comments

This was a fun read shortly after wrapping up the season finale! (And thanks for keeping it spoiler free for those who haven’t caught up!) Some of these I already knew, but some of them were mindblowing–like it’s economic contributions!

Hey! This is my first visit to your blog! We are a group of volunteers and starting a new initiative in a community in the same niche. Your blog provided us useful information to work on. You have done a outstanding job!

I tried my best to watch it a few months ago but it was so hard because the first few episodes were so slow that I fell asleep on it. But the steady craze for it and the fact that you say its “the most pirated TV Show for four years” makes me want to reconsider and give it another shot. How come you don’t watch it?

I just cannot find the time to watch it. I feel that the first few episodes are so vital to the overall plot of the series that I need to watch them with all the focus in the world. I have watched the first episode twice and still cannot remember half of it. I think it’s worth another go, definitely!